confidently paint watercolor step by step

It's easy to paint watercolor step by step.

Paint the tutorial by following the steps. Then you can confidently paint any subject with the same steps.

We will be painting a colorful, freshwater Koi Angelfish. Angelfish are a popular aquarium fish that comes from the Amazon River of South America.

Let's get our materials together and paint this unusual God gift.

Watercolor is Easy!

what materials will we use?

• Drawing materials
  
• Masking fluid
  
• Paint, the colors below
  
• A watercolor brush
• Watercolor paper, any size
  
• Clean water and paper towels
• A palette or a Styrofoam plate
  

get ready to paint

Have a container of clean water ready for painting and to rinse your brush between colors.

It's good to have paper towels or a sponge to wipe the excess water off your brush. But I am trying a new thing instead, a wash cloth near the water container.

Select a color scheme for each painting. Paper clip the color scheme on your color wheel.

Then refer to it and lay out your paint colors: yellow, orange, red-orange, blue-violet and blue.

How to Select a Color Scheme.

painting watercolor step by step

It's a good idea to have reference material of whatever God gift is our subject.

draw your angelfish

Do your drawing on a separate tablet. Erasures on the watercolor paper can damage the paper.

This is for learning how to paint watercolor step by step, so don't worry about doing a perfect drawing.

just have fun!

Transfer your drawing to your painting surface with graphite paper.  If you are good at drawing, do your drawing directly on the watercolor paper.

Use light marks, when you put your drawing on the painting surface. Heavy pencil or graphite marks can show thru into the finished painting.

• Apply masking fluid to protect the highlight on the top of the angelfish and its two long feelers.
  
• Let the masking fluid dry before you do any painting.

Then you may paint right over the dry masking fluid and the paper stays white underneath.

More about saving the white paper

paint the background

• Paint watercolor step by step - in layers from light to darker colors.

So the background is painted in two layers. First a light layer and then after it is dry, darker colors are painted.

background - step one

• Paint the light areas.

Start painting the background in the upper left corner.

The light in this painting is coming from the upper left.

Set the corner of your watercolor tablet up on something to help the paint flow down when you are painting. I used a 2x4 piece of wood.

Mix orange with plenty of water and start painting in the corner.

Continue painting a watercolor wash down the paper.

Paint quickly to prevent hard edges.

Farther down, add a light blue. Paint darker farther from the light.

Mix your orange or orange-red with either blue or blue-violet to get darker colors.

Paint around the angelfish.

The light layer of the background

The first wash of the background is finished. Let it dry completely.

You may use a hairdryer to speed up the process. But let some water soak away first. Otherwise, the hairdryer will blow the colors around.

Note, the yellow on the fish is the masking fluid.

background - step two

• Paint the darker background areas.

Add some darker colors and texture.

Now that the first layer is dry, you can add some darker colors behind and below the fish.

Dampen the area you are going to paint a little past where you want to paint. Paint your darker colors and stop before you get to the edge of the wet area. The edge will blend out softly, preventing any hard edges.

While the paint is still wet, you may sprinkle on some sea salt for added texture. You may also, splatter some wet paint from your paint brush.

Mix your desired color with water and load it onto the brush. Hold the brush over the painting. Then tap the handle of the brush to make the wet paint splatter onto the painting.

Let the background dry before you start painting the Koi Angelfish. This is painting watercolor step by step.

painting the angelfish

Now we get to paint the Koi Angelfish.

The angelfish aren't all marked alike. The bright color and where the dark spots are vary from fish to fish.

They all have somethings in common. The colored part is on the front and top of the Koi Angelfish. It varies from yellow to orange.

The dark spots are black. They may appear anywhere on the body or fins.

The point is we don't have to be exact about where we put the color or the spots. Just paint and have fun!

That's what makes this a great fish for learning how to paint watercolor step by step.

Go up to fish photos.

paint the top color on the angelfish

Dampen the top area of the angelfish where you are going to paint color.

Paint the yellow darker on the top of the angelfish.

Paint the yellow a little darker on the top edge of the fish. Where the yellow stops down on the body, feather the color out softly with a clean, damp brush.

Paint orange while the yellow is still damp.

Continue painting your angelfish. While the yellow is still damp, dab orange on the yellow.

Softly dab the orange on with the tip of your brush to simulate the scales of a fish. That's what painting watercolor step by step can do.

The orange will feather out into the damp yellow paint.

Paint around the eye.

paint the eye and start the dark spots

Mix a black out of your complimentary colors, orange and blue.

Paint the eye and shadow on the body.

Paint the black center of the eye. If you leave a little speck of white in the eye, it gives life to the fish. Paint an orange ring around the eye with a highlight.

Softly paint some lavender or blue shadows on the bottom half of the body.

How to mix paint colors

detail and finish the painting

The colored parts, shadow areas and the fins of the angelfish are dry.

Now we can add more paint on top of the underpainting. That's how to paint watercolor step by step.

Continue painting the black areas.

Continue painting the black areas of the Koi Angelfish.

Puts black spots on the body where ever you wish.

You may paint some black on the fins and pull out a few veins.

Remove masking and expose the white paper.

Remove the masking fluid. Take the masking fluid off with a dry finger or a rubber cement pickup tool.

This exposes the highlight areas on the top of the body and the white feelers.

paint the feelers and bottom fin

Make the feeler on the far side of the body slightly blue to make it look farther away.

Finish the details of your painting.

Use a damp brush to soften the bottom edge of the body highlight.

Paint the bottom fin over the dry background. The background color can be seen through the transparent fin. That's how we paint watercolor, one step at a time.

Put some color of the water on the dorsal fin and the tail because they are somewhat transparent and the water would show thru. Indicate the back edge of the tail.

• Touch up anything you want.
  

Paintings don't have to be perfect, just relax and enjoy painting!

painting watercolor step by step

1. Paint the background, light to dark.
2. Paint the subject, light to dark.
3. Remove any masking, then detail and finish the painting.

The more we paint, the better we get and the more fun it is!

What a joy it is sharing watercolor painting with you!

paint more watercolors!